Central Bucks East beats Pennridge 58-37 in boys basketball

Rams shoot 13-for-43 from field in 58-37 loss. Stauffer scores 20 for Patriots.

February 05, 2013|By Ron Kohl, Special to The Morning Call

Dean Behrens probably wouldn't call himself superstitious, but the Pennridge basketball coach saw some things he didn't like in the first half of the Rams' Suburban One League battle with visiting Central Bucks East.

Twice before intermission, East guards dropped in wild 3-point shots off the glass as the Patriots took a 24-16 halftime lead, and things went downhill from there as the Rams dropped a 58-37 decision.

"They hit two bank 3s in the first half, and I thought that was a bad omen," Behrens said.

Actually, Behrens didn't need to go the route of superstition to pinpoint why his team dropped to 4-9 in Suburban One play (9-12 overall), suffering a second-half loss over a team Pennridge had beaten by a point in early January in Buckingham.

Cold shooting and inefficient rebounding teamed up to ruin Senior Night for the Rams.

Pennridge shot a frigid 13-for-43 from the field while East's 49 percent floor accuracy was largely lifted by second- and third-chance baskets as the Patriots improved to 10-11 (5-8 SOL).

About the only remarkable thing — from a positive perspective, from Behrens' viewpoint — was that the hosts stayed competitive as long as they did.

When Alex Krivda retrieved a teammate's airball for a pretty putback basket, Pennridge trailed by just 33-27 with just under two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

But the Rams wouldn't score again for more than six minutes, and East's 17-0 run broke things open in the Patriots' favor.

"We were stuck on 27 for a heck of a long time," Behrens said. "I thought Alex, at the start of the second half, gave us a real spark. It was 33-27, and then we could not get off of 27.

"We've been having trouble putting the ball in the basket."

While Pennridge got double-digit efforts from Jeff Garner (15 points) and Krivda (12), the rest of the Ram lineup accounted for just 10 points. East, meanwhile, had no such problems, thanks to the productive inside-outside combo of Matt Stauffer and Brendan McLaughlin.

McLaughlin headed up East's offensive output in the first half, scoring 11 of his 16 points while dropping in three treys, including one of the Pates' two bank-shot connections.

Stauffer, a 6-5 senior forward, took control underneath after the break, consistently winning the battle of the boards in scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points.

Stauffer scored East's final 10 third quarter points, twice retrieving his own inside misses before sealing the third quarter scoring by stepping outside for an open baseline 3-pointer.

That basket extended the visitors' lead to 38-27, and at that point, Pennridge was clearly in trouble, thanks to the aforementioned combination of offensive short-circuitry and an inability to hold East to one shot.

Veteran coaches know that there are going to be nights when baskets come only with great difficulty, but Behrens never expected his team to struggle underneath, not with a pair of starters measuring 6-foot-8 and 6-5.

"One thing that was a major nemesis was our rebounding," he said. "It was awful.

"I never foresaw our rebounding being so poor this year, but we get pushed around a little bit; teams are more physical than we are," Behrens explained. "At times we look good, but we're not consistent rebounding the ball, and we haven't been all year."

While bright spots were almost nonexistent for the hosts, Pennridge did get a boost from the return of sophomore guard Zach Muredda, who saw his first action after suffering an ankle injury in midseason.

"Zach did some good things," Behrens said. "He didn't score, but he made some really nice passes. We just didn't convert."